Turning, Turning, Turning–A 2007 Flashback

Turning, Turning, Turning--A 2007 Flashback

by baldilocks

Orig­i­nally posted on Feb­ru­ary 1, 2007. For­mer Wash­ing­ton Post mil­i­tary affairs writer William Arkin was a repeat tar­get of mine back then. Don’t hear much from him any­more. I used to think that he was anti­war and anti-​troops, but now I’m not so sure of things as I was back then. Okay, I am sure he hates the troops, And one won­ders were all the anti­wars protests are in 2014, but…anyway, here’s the old post. Happy Vet­er­ans Day to my fel­low veterans!

every rape and mur­der, the Amer­i­can pub­lic has indulged those in uni­form, accept­ing that the inci­dents were the prod­uct of bad apples or even of some admin­is­tra­tion or com­mand order.

Bet­ter Arkin: “So shut up you chickenh-…er, you rapists and mur­der­ers (and we know you really all are rapists and mur­der­ers, even the she-​GIs). Shut up because we’ve been look­ing for a rea­son to tell you to STFU and look­ing for a rea­son to heap scorn upon you just like we did to your dad­dies and uncles.

We pay the sol­diers a decent wage, take care of their fam­i­lies, pro­vide them with hous­ing and med­ical care and vast social sup­port sys­tems and ship obscene ameni­ties into the war zone for them, we sup­port them in every pos­si­ble way, and their atti­tude is that we should in addi­tion roll over and play dead, defer to the mil­i­tary and the gen­er­als and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and respon­si­bil­i­ties to speak up because they are above society

Bet­ter Arkin: “You have no right to tell us to shut up so shut up telling us to shut up because we pay your salary. What? You pay your own salary too? So what; you still should shut up because you’re wrong!!!! Every­thing about you is wrong; every­thing you believe in is wrong!! And I know that your uni­form gives you cred­i­bil­ity when you say that you believe in what you’re doing in Iraq, but I don’t want to hear it and don’t want to under­stand. I just know you’re wrong and because you are wrong I’ll do every­thing I can to make you shut up or shame you into shut­ting up. Now SHUTUP!!!”

Seri­ously, here’s the bot­tom line for those like Arkin: it mat­ters not whether you’re an Iraq War Vet­eran or whether you’re a civil­ian who doesn’t know a hel­met from a hole in the ground. All of the insult­ing and men­da­cious digs in Arkin’s op-​ed are merely the oppos­ing side of the Chick­en­hawk sword (wielded ad nau­seum by Tim Rob­bins to one of Bill O’Reilly’s reporters dur­ing last weekend’s anti­war rally).

Such peo­ple don’t care whether you’ve been in the mil­i­tary or not. All they want is for you to agree with their posi­tion and if you don’t, it’s “what the heck do you know, Chick­en­hawk?” and soon it will be “what the heck do you know, Baby-​killer?” They’re work­ing up to it, trust me.

So don’t be to hard on Arkin. He finally screwed his courage to the stick­ing place and said this out loud. Why? Because he believes that the time is right – just as last weekend’s anti­war types thought it was the right time to trot out that old anti-​war horse, Jane Fonda.

Originally posted on February 1, 2007. Former Washington Post military affairs writer William Arkin was a repeat target of mine back then. Don’t hear much from him anymore. I used to think that he was antiwar and anti-troops, but now I’m not so sure of things as I was back then. Okay, I am sure he hates the troops, And one wonders were all the antiwars protests are in 2014, but…anyway, here’s the old post. Happy Veterans Day to my fellow veterans!

every rape and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform, accepting that the incidents were the product of bad apples or even of some administration or command order.

Better Arkin: “So shut up you chickenh-…er, you rapists and murderers (and we know you really all are rapists and murderers, even the she-GIs). Shut up because we’ve been looking for a reason to tell you to STFU and looking for a reason to heap scorn upon you just like we did to your daddies and uncles.

We pay the soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing and medical care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them, we support them in every possible way, and their attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and responsibilities to speak up because they are above society

Better Arkin: “You have no right to tell us to shut up so shut up telling us to shut up because we pay your salary. What? You pay your own salary too? So what; you still should shut up because you’re wrong!!!! Everything about you is wrong; everything you believe in is wrong!! And I know that your uniform gives you credibility when you say that you believe in what you’re doing in Iraq, but I don’t want to hear it and don’t want to understand. I just know you’re wrong and because you are wrong I’ll do everything I can to make you shut up or shame you into shutting up. Now SHUT UP!!!”

Seriously, here’s the bottom line for those like Arkin: it matters not whether you’re an Iraq War Veteran or whether you’re a civilian who doesn’t know a helmet from a hole in the ground. All of the insulting and mendacious digs in Arkin’s op-ed are merely the opposing side of the Chickenhawk sword (wielded ad nauseum by Tim Robbins to one of Bill O’Reilly’s reporters during last weekend’s antiwar rally).

Such people don’t care whether you’ve been in the military or not. All they want is for you to agree with their position and if you don’t, it’s “what the heck do you know, Chickenhawk?” and soon it will be “what the heck do you know, Baby-killer?” They’re working up to it, trust me.

So don’t be to hard on Arkin. He finally screwed his courage to the sticking place and said this out loud. Why? Because he believes that the time is right–just as last weekend’s antiwar types thought it was the right time to trot out that old anti-war horse, Jane Fonda.

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